George Clooney Friends “Want Him To Run For President” Is Made-Up Story

Truth rating: 0

By
Shari Weiss | 4:04 pm, June 8, 2018

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A story about how George Clooney’s friends “want him to run for president” was seemingly made-up. Gossip Cop can bust it. In addition to going against his own on-the-record comments about not transitioning to a political career, the article contains a glaring factual error that further proves the tale is bogus.

In the wake of Clooney being honored on Thursday with AFI’s Life Achievement Award, HollywoodLife is claiming to have “exclusively heard George’s friends want him to make a run for the White House.” A so-called “source” is quoted as saying, “Hollywood friends the likes of Julia Roberts and many more were not only interested in honoring their friend [at the AFI event] but they also wanted to grab his ear to try to convince him to run for president.” But the actress didn’t “grab his ear” about running for the presidency at the event or about anything else for that matter because she wasn’t even there. Roberts was forced to miss the ceremony due to a last-minute work-related scheduling conflict.

If HollywoodLies, as the site is known for its tendency to make-up phony stories, truly had a credible “source,” it would’ve known that Roberts wasn’t even there, let alone talking to him about running for office. This significant error shows that readers should be skeptical of the rest of the report, which doesn’t name any of the actual attendees apart from Clooney’s wife, Amal. In fact, it seems the questionable “source” doesn’t even have first-hand knowledge of what did or didn’t go down at the gala, as the blog suspiciously writes, “The insider added that Candidate Clooney would have been ‘a very big topic of conversation all night that George would not be able to get away from.'” That’s a prediction, not actual insight on what did or didn’t take place.

Similarly, the outlet reveals it doesn’t have any direct reporting from the event when it wonders, “Did someone get in George’s ear during the gala and convince him to throw his hat in the ring when the 2020 election rolls around? Only time will tell.” In contrast, Pete Hammond, an editor and columnist at HollywoodLies’ own sister site Deadline, was at the Dolby Theater for the festivities, and noted in his recap of the AFI event and the tributes to Clooney that Jimmy Kimmel “got his biggest laugh by informing that Clooney was the one who convinced Roseanne to open a twitter account.” He reported “that was about the closest anyone got to a reference to either Trump or his supporters except to say perhaps George should consider running for office.”

Significantly, Hammond, who is widely respected in the film industry, did not name any specific people who thought Clooney “should consider running for office,” and made no reference to Roberts except for sharing that Shirley MacLaine filled in for her. Gossip Cop debunked rumors of the actor running for president in 2020 as recently as March, pointing out that Clooney had already confirmed to Variety last fall that he still doesn’t have presidential aspirations. It’s hard to believe that friends of his would go against his expressed beliefs and try to twist his arm into running. Regardless, it’s apparent from the holes in HollywoodLies’ tale, especially its Roberts reference, that its piece was concocted, not legitimately reported.